Welcome to our collection of inspiring Martha Beck quotes! Martha Beck is a renowned author, life coach, and speaker, known for her insightful perspectives on personal growth, self-discovery, and finding joy in life’s journey. Her words resonate deeply with many, offering profound wisdom and guidance for navigating the complexities of modern life with authenticity and grace.
Throughout her career, Martha Beck has touched the lives of countless individuals with her unique blend of humor, vulnerability, and profound insight. Her writings and teachings often explore themes of self-acceptance, resilience, and the pursuit of inner peace. Whether you’re seeking motivation, clarity, or simply a fresh perspective on life, you’re sure to find inspiration in the words of Martha Beck.
Below, we’ve curated a selection of Martha Beck quotes that capture the essence of her teachings. Feel free to use these quotes to fuel your own journey of self-discovery, whether by copying them, pairing them with images, or enhancing them with stylish fonts. Let Martha Beck’s wisdom serve as a guiding light as you navigate life’s twists and turns, empowering you to live authentically and embrace the beauty of your own unique path.
Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury. Martha Beck
What laughter is to childhood, sex is to adolescence. Martha Beck
All religious leaders and spiritual teachers emphasize finding a place within us that is true. People who obsessively follow these leaders instead of their own purpose attach to the spiritual leader and become fanatical and controlling. That’s why Jesus tried to tell his followers not to get attached to outward form. Martha Beck
Almost all my middle-aged and elderly acquaintances, including me, feel about 25, unless we haven’t had our coffee, in which case we feel 107. Martha Beck
Our culture has created two almost irreconcilable descriptions of a ‘good woman.’ The first is the individual achiever; the second, the self-sacrificing domestic goddess. Martha Beck
I was learning to track rhinoceroses in Africa and tracked right up on an animal that really I thought was going to kill me. Martha Beck
Basic human contact – the meeting of eyes, the exchanging of words – is to the psyche what oxygen is to the brain. If you’re feeling abandoned by the world, interact with anyone you can. Martha Beck
The way we do anything is the way we do everything. Martha Beck
Once we’re willing to confront our emotional suffering, we begin making choices based on attraction instead of aversion, love instead of fear. Where we used to think about what was ‘safe,’ we now become interested in doing what seems right or fun or meaningful or ripe with possibilities. Martha Beck
Adults under threat feel like children. Martha Beck
Most of my clients don’t realize that the way they look and the way they think about their looks are two separate issues. Martha Beck
Not having time or energy for weight loss makes no sense. Does it take more time or energy to eat fish than prime rib? No. Martha Beck
If we’re stuck with having expectations, there’s a very good reason to embrace positive ones: It’s that we often create what we anticipate. Martha Beck
At times in my life, I have been utterly lonely. At other times, I’ve had disgusting infectious diseases. Try admitting these things in our culture. Martha Beck
I don’t believe that there are no spiritual beings around us. I don’t know what to call them, I don’t know how they work. But I know they’re there. Martha Beck
People are so afraid of authority figures and doctors are authority figures. Martha Beck
We virtually never feel our age, but thinking that we should can lead to disaster. Martha Beck
I suggest Substituting Inedible Nurturance, or SIN. Don’t replace overeating with virtuous work or exercise; instead, make a list of things you love, from watching TV to hanging out with favorite people. Martha Beck
I cannot count the times I’ve been defeated, humiliated, or physically injured immediately after saying the words, ‘Hey, how hard can it be?’ But that never seems to stop me from saying them again. Martha Beck
I’m not saying we have power over everything in our lives – if that were true, my hair would look so, so different – but I am saying that there’s no circumstance in which we are completely powerless. Martha Beck
Whether you’ve seen angels floating around your bedroom or just found a ray of hope at a lonely moment, choosing to believe that something unseen is caring for you can be a life-shifting exercise. Martha Beck
Tiny steps will get you to your goal months and months sooner. A little is better than a lot. Martha Beck
I’d like to help repair the earth’s ecosystems, and to fully live until I’m fully dead. Martha Beck
In the developed world, hundreds of millions of us now face the bizarre problem of surfeit. Yet our brains, instincts, and socialized behavior are still geared to an environment of lack. The result? Overwhelm – on an unprecedented scale. Martha Beck
If you’re religious, it gives you a perspective. Martha Beck
I had a client who was a professional baseball player once, and he would go to clubs and dance for seven, eight, nine hours at a time. He wouldn’t drink, he wouldn’t take drugs – he just danced because he had so much physical energy; he was this amazing athlete. Martha Beck
No one else can take risks for us, or face our losses on our behalf, or give us self-esteem. No one can spare us from life’s slings and arrows, and when death comes, we meet it alone. Martha Beck
Anything you’re trying to will is focused on the future; it’s always associated with some sort of anxiety that makes the present moment somewhat uncomfortable. Martha Beck
To make an activity joyful, keep adding things until the activity as a whole becomes more appealing than repulsing. Martha Beck
Every day brings new choices. Martha Beck
It takes about four days of virtuous living to create a little weight loss. That also happens to be the time required to get used to eating less. In other words, if you can get past day three of a fitness regimen, things improve. Martha Beck
Comparing and contrasting is a valuable human skill – and not just during high school English exams. Our ability to rank-order things is invaluable in making choices and setting priorities. Martha Beck
Much protective self-criticism stems from growing up around people who wouldn’t or couldn’t love you, and it’s likely they still can’t or won’t. In general, however, the more you let go of the tedious delusion of your own unattractiveness, the easier it will be for others to connect with you, and the more accepted you’ll feel. Martha Beck
Do whatever it takes to convey your essential self. Martha Beck
I have come to believe that there are infinite passageways out of the shadows, infinite vehicles to transport us into the light. Martha Beck
Something in the human psyche confuses beauty with the right to be loved. The briefest glance at human folly reveals that good looks and worthiness operate independently. Yet countless socializing forces, from Aunt Clara to the latest perfume ad, reinforce beliefs like ‘If I were pretty enough, I would be loved.’ Martha Beck
I majored in Chinese. I was never really good at Chinese but I really, really benefited from having been exposed to Asian philosophy early in my life. Martha Beck
Whatever terrible things may have happened to you, only one thing allows them to damage your core self, and that is continued belief in them. Martha Beck
My point is that perceptual bias can affect nut jobs and scientists alike. If we hold too rigidly to what we think we know, we ignore or avoid evidence of anything that might change our mind. Martha Beck
Only since the Industrial Revolution have most people worked in places away from their homes or been left to raise small children without the help of multiple adults, making for an unsupported life. Martha Beck
Western democracies exalt the ideal of social equality, but our economic system arguably emerged from 16th-century Calvinism, a religion whose members believed that God showed favor by bestowing wealth and other forms of success on what they called ‘the chosen.’ Martha Beck
Life is full of tough decisions, and nothing makes them easy. But the worst ones are really your personal koans, and tormenting ambivalence is just the sense of satori rising. Try, trust, try, and trust again, and eventually you’ll feel your mind change its focus to a new level of understanding. Martha Beck
As much horror as we have always created, we are a species that keeps moving forward, seeing new sights in new ways, and enjoying the journey. Martha Beck
I’ve never understood why some people hesitate before diving into unfamiliar tasks or activities. I couldn’t imagine wanting more instructions about anything. Martha Beck
I practice staying calm all the time, beginning with situations that aren’t tense. Martha Beck
Denial exists because human infants, though equipped with trust-o-meters, are built to trust, blindly and absolutely, any older person who wanders past. Martha Beck
I feel about aging the way William Saroyan said he felt about death: Everybody has to do it, but I always believed an exception would be made in my case. Martha Beck
In one century, we’ve added 28 years to our average life span – a change so rapid that our brains couldn’t possibly have evolved to accommodate it. Martha Beck
The average adult laughs 15 times a day; the average child, more than 400 times. Martha Beck
Good-looking individuals are treated better than homely ones in virtually every social situation, from dating to trial by jury. If everyday experience hasn’t convinced you of this, there’s research that will. Martha Beck
No matter how difficult and painful it may be, nothing sounds as good to the soul as the truth. Martha Beck
A designated patient ‘carries’ the group’s dysfunction. A designated issue performs the same service for an individual, dominating our psyches so that other troubles can go unnoticed. Martha Beck
The most common reason we stumble into the delusion of powerlessness is that we’re afraid of what other people would do or say or feel if we were to act as we wanted. Martha Beck
Indecision may come from an instinctive hunch that there’s more you need to know – which means it’s time to learn everything you can about the pros and cons of each option. You can continue on this track, however, only as long as you’re unearthing genuinely new information. Martha Beck
I really do think that any deep crisis is an opportunity to make your life extraordinary in some way. Martha Beck
If you’re totally sedentary and eat 2,500 calories a day, don’t instantly go to 1,200 calories and hours of aerobics – your weight loss will be sudden and violent, but also fleeting. Martha Beck
Since our society equates happiness with youth, we often assume that sorrow, quiet desperation, and hopelessness go hand in hand with getting older. They don’t. Emotional pain or numbness are symptoms of living the wrong life, not a long life. Martha Beck
My dog has the intellectual capacity of a lime wedge, yet even he possesses an elaborate set of assumptions, based on his ability to control my behavior through a combination of slavish devotion and incessant howling. Martha Beck
Self-pity, a dominant characteristic of sociopaths, is also the characteristic that differentiates heroic storytelling from psychological rumination. When you talk about your experiences to shed light, you may feel wrenching pain, grief, anger, or shame. Your audience may pity you, but not because you want them to. Martha Beck
As soon as you think you know someone else’s truth better than they do, you are in deep water. Martha Beck
Rest until you feel like playing, then play until you feel like resting, period. Never do anything else. Martha Beck
Instead of fretting about getting everything done, why not simply accept that being alive means having things to do? Then drop into full engagement with whatever you’re doing, and let the worry go. Martha Beck
There are several ways to mess up your life by fighting to make your calendar age match your felt age. I live in the Southwest, a part of the country with more than its share of fair skies, material wealth, and people who are trying not to be as old as they are. Martha Beck
Bracketing has turned all my experiences, remembered and present, into a gallery of miracles where I wander around dazzled by the beauty of events I cannot explain. Martha Beck
The position that I take partly as a result of living in Asia is where you stop living according to your expectations and you become available to experience things as they are. Martha Beck
To live a life that is wrong for you is a form of dying. There are people who have lives that look perfect. They try to be happy, they believe they should be happy, they are trying to like it, but if it’s off course from their north star, they aren’t satisfied. Martha Beck
You have the freedom to live and let live, to love and let love. Granting yourself that freedom is one of the healthiest, most constructive things you can do for yourself and the people who matter to you. Martha Beck
When your entire brain is active, that means you are taking everything in through all sense perception. Your entire memory bank and your instincts are in play, so you make much quicker and more intelligent choices. Martha Beck
My own nature hovers between neurotic and paranoid. I’ve developed the habit of mentally listing things that make me optimistic about the future. I do it every day. Martha Beck
In fact, when care appears, unconditional love often vanishes. Martha Beck
Many of us have spent a lifetime trying to be what we’re not, feeling lousy about ourselves when we fail and sometimes even when we succeed. We hide our differences when, by accepting and celebrating them, we could collaborate to make every effort more exciting, productive, enjoyable, and powerful. Personally, I think we should start right now. Martha Beck
Even if you can be the world’s best at one thing, you’ll be the world’s worst at something else. Supermodels make pathetic sumo wrestlers. Martha Beck
Expectation loiters in the DNA of every sentient being; when you tell yourself or a loved one, ‘Don’t get your hopes up,’ you’re fighting ancient genetic programming. Martha Beck
If you’re feeling intransigently ambivalent, it might pay to formally accept what’s already happening – that is, decide not to decide. Martha Beck
Standards of beauty are arbitrary. Body shame exists only to the extent that our physiques don’t match our own beliefs about how we should look. Martha Beck
Loneliness is proof that your innate search for connection is intact. Martha Beck
If you’re living completely on your own, break out of solitary confinement. Seek to understand others, and help them understand you. Martha Beck
Seek art from every time and place, in any form, to connect with those who really move you. Martha Beck
Children who assume adult responsibilities feel old when they’re young. Martha Beck
Given the eclectic and constantly shifting nature of my metaphysical inclinations, I will probably never feel certain exactly what an angel is. Martha Beck
What happens when we’re willing to feel bad is that, sure enough, we often feel bad – but without the stress of futile avoidance. Emotional discomfort, when accepted, rises, crests, and falls in a series of waves. Each wave washes parts of us away and deposits treasures we never imagined. Martha Beck
To know what that true self is without social pressure is to know your true nature. Martha Beck
When you meet people, show real appreciation, then genuine curiosity. Martha Beck
Our thoughts about an event can have a dramatic effect on how we go through the event itself. When our expectations are low, it’s easy to be pleasantly surprised. When they’re not, we’re vulnerable to painful disappointment. Because of this, many people spend a good deal of effort trying to avoid developing high hopes about anything. Martha Beck
Hopeful thinking can get you out of your fear zone and into your appreciation zone. Martha Beck
Our ideas about love and attractiveness are so primal, our need for belonging so intense, that most of us are loath to abandon our favorite beliefs on these issues. If you’ve ever let yourself feel lovable and lovely, only to be deeply hurt, you may see accepting your own body as a setup for severe emotional wounding. Martha Beck
You get social pressure from your parents, who teach you to pay attention to certain things and not to others. You get it in school. Martha Beck
Sacred play is anything that takes you into that right hemisphere of your brain. It turns out that this move away from left to the right hemisphere, that sense of expansiveness and everything, can be accomplished through unusual rhythmic action, or any action that requires so much attention away from words that you cannot think in words. Martha Beck
When fear makes your choices for you, no security measures on earth will keep the things you dread from finding you. But if you can avoid avoidance – if you can choose to embrace experiences out of passion, enthusiasm, and a readiness to feel whatever arises – then nothing, nothing in all this dangerous world, can keep you from being safe. Martha Beck
The process of spotting fear and refusing to obey it is the source of all true empowerment. Martha Beck
Allowing children to show their guilt, show their grief, show their anger, takes the sting out of the situation. Martha Beck
Whatever causes you to drop your plan forward and open to your vision, your own, deeply personal vision of what your life could be at its very best, that’s what I call meeting your rhinoceros. Martha Beck
As a life coach, I love makeovers, from new clothes to surgery, pedicures to highlights. But redoing makes you feel better only if approached with the right attitude. Martha Beck
Sometimes a psychic tells you something and it feels wrong and others may be right on the money. It’s your choice about whom to trust, and giving that trust is something we do ourselves. Martha Beck
The way we can allow ourselves to do what we need to, no matter what others may say or do, is to choose love and defy fear. Martha Beck
Caring for your inner child has a powerful and surprisingly quick result: Do it and the child heals. Martha Beck
I always felt that it was my job to try to help other people get it and deal with it. Martha Beck
The great power of separating the watching mind from the thinking mind is that the watching mind is innately loving. Some call this part of the psyche the ‘compassionate witness.’ Sharing our difficult feelings with a compassionate witness is the crucial step that heals the infinite small wounds inflicted upon the soul by everyday life. Martha Beck
If you’d rather live surrounded by pristine objects than by the traces of happy memories, stay focused on tangible things. Otherwise, stop fixating on stuff you can touch and start caring about stuff that touches you. Martha Beck
Creating ways to be happy is your life’s work, a challenge that won’t end until you die. Martha Beck